Dear 4A Families,
Welcome Back and Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and that you are ready to jump into the New Year 2022! We are also very blessed to have Ms. Corrigan stepping into the 4B classroom for Ms. Benson. Thank you for the thoughtful Christmas cards and gifts I received. I so appreciate your kindness.
This week we will take time to share some favorite holiday events and we will review our classroom and school procedures and rules all week. Reviewing routines and procedures will help us start the year off right. This week, we will be focusing on the habit of Managing Impulsivity. This habit includes the following: taking time to consider options; thinking before speaking or acting; remaining calm when stressed or challenged; being thoughtful and considerate of others; proceeding carefully. This is a fancy way of working on self-control, and it is a great time to revisit some classroom expectations as we begin a new year!
Religion: To celebrate Epiphany we will bless our classroom doors this week. We will also be doing some finishing up around the Corporal Works of Mercy. (See LA section) We will begin a study of the Liturgical Year later in the week with more information to come next week on this unit. Our Second Step lessons
Language Arts: Students incorporate the Corporal Works of Mercy into a creative writing assignment using a newspaper article format called Cool School News. In class, students will write an article about someone they know who cares for and loves people in need, thus living out one or more of the Corporal Works of Mercy. AT HOME: Students will need your help in gathering some information about a person (parent, friend, aunt, uncle, neighbor, etc.) that follows one or more Corporal Works of Mercy. Students will bring home an assignment sheet with detailed directions. We’re asking students to complete this interview/pre-writing and bring their bullet list of notes to school no later than Monday, January 10th. I will be going over the directions and sharing some samples so the students understand their task.
Spelling: Our spelling words are the months and days…proper nouns, which means they need to be capitalized! This test will take place on January 14th. The students will also be expected to memorize and recite, by January 14th, the Month Poem.
Reading: Students read, My Brother Martin and Langston Hughes: A Poet and a Dreamer.
Our target comprehension skill is “identifying the author’s purpose.” Students learn to explain historical events while reading a biography and poetry. Our essential question asks, “What might lead a person to try to change the world?”
Vocabulary: Prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir-; students learn the meaning of these prefixes and use them to identify meanings of new words.
Fluency: Good readers automatically group words into phrases as they read. These pauses help readers make sense of ideas in the text. We work to do this as we read this week. We pause at commas, and also at the end of sentences.
Social Studies: The students will be reviewing the NE/SE/Midwest States for a test on January 14th. These are not new states, but the states the students have already been tested on. Our class work will focus on wrapping up our Lewis and Clark unit and then we will change gears a bit as we learn about our Washington State symbols.
Math: We will start off the week with a review of addition, subtraction and multiplication algorithms to refresh our skills as we prepare to enter our next unit that will focus on accurate computation when multiplying by a two digit number. Look for some addition/subtraction review homework on Tuesday and Wednesday. We will move all students back to subtraction on Xtramath this week only to support our review.
Science: We begin an earth science unit titled, “The Birth of Rocks.” In this unit, students investigate features and processes of the Earth’s surface. Students explore the rapid process of volcanic eruptions! In contrast, students also explore the gradual Earth processes of weathering and erosion.
That is about all for this first week back. We have lots of great learning ahead. I am excited to see the students and jump into the New Year!
Happy Epiphany!
